Healthcare service and supply producers have typically tried to achieve success by selling their supplies to consumers in close proximity to their geographic locations. HealthCare Service and Supply (HCS/S) producers generally market their supplies through local media (e.g. newspapers, trade magazines) and direct consumer communication. Local media marketing focused on close proximity geographic areas limits the consumer base of healthcare service and supply providers.
In addition, healthcare service and supply producers offer services in non-specific, general categories. For example, primary care providers typically offer two general services: new patient visits and follow-up patient visits.
HCS/S producers typically do not offer services and supplies specific to known HCS/S consumer needs. For example, HCS/S producers do not offer services to address common HCS/S needs, for example:
‘Diagnosis and treatment of sore throat’; or
‘Evaluation and effective treatment of chronic back pain’; or
‘Evaluation and effective treatment of elderly patient with sudden memory loss’.
General category marketing does not adequately represent the full spectrum of healthcare services and supplies available; whereas offering services and supplies specific to known HCS/S consumer needs would better present useful, high demand HCS/S products and services to the marketplace.
Healthcare service and supply producers typically obtain payment through a combination of third party means and sometimes receive out-of-pocket payments directly from consumers. Thus, there are currently two principal categories of healthcare spending: payment through third party payers (such as insurance companies, for example) and individual payments from consumers. Individual out-of-pocket payment for Healthcare Services and Supplies (HCS/S) is currently a growing trend. Current estimates of annual individual out-of-pocket spending for healthcare services in the United States at the time of this application range from $34 Billion to $850 Billion. Individual out-of-pocket payments constitute a growing proportion of total healthcare spending. However, there is currently no central marketplace available where consumers can search for available healthcare services and supplies based on the specific features of the healthcare service or supply of interest, including: price, availability, quality, producer service quality, physical location, time availability, and based on the current needs of the consumer.
Currently, most consumers tend to pay for health care through third-party payers, such as insurance companies, or the government. However, payments through third party payers are inefficient, cumbersome and administratively complex, and consumers often try to avoid this process. HCS/S producers typically collect payment from third party payers through costly administrative systems. Third party payers attach administrative requirements to payments, which can increase cost and complexity. These requirements reduce Producer quality, efficiency and productivity, and thus the producers would also often like to avoid this process. However, out-of-pocket payments are currently difficult to secure. Thus, HCS/S consumers and producers lack an efficient system to identify, offer, select and transfer payment for healthcare services and supplies.
Furthermore, HCS/S Producers typically maintain excess production capacity that may go to waste. For example, primary care provider office schedules frequently include patient evaluation time slots that are not used, and medical supply companies maintain supply inventories that are not promptly sold.
But currently, there is no organized transaction system for individual out-of-pocket payment for healthcare services and supplies. There is currently no organized transaction system to reduce HCS/S marketplace complexity; to facilitate HCS/S identification, purchase and sales outside of local geographic and media constraints; to facilitate sales of discrete HCS/S to remote locations, to collect HCS/S out-of-pocket payments; to consolidate latent production capacity; and to facilitate Consumer searches for HCS/S based on the specific features of the HCS/S of interest. Although consumers can currently purchase HCS/S with out-of-pocket payments, there is no organized transaction system for facilitating out-of-pocket HCS/S transactions. In addition, although HCS/S consumers can make out-of-pocket payments to HCS/S producers through individual payment plans, these individual payment plans are not coordinated through an organized transaction system. Payment options through these individual payment plans can include payment with credit cards, checks, cash, debit cards and barter transactions. Individual payments are thus typically made in full at point-of-service or in installment plans. These individual payment plans are administratively complex, difficult to enforce, inefficient and expensive.
Needed is a system and method to help overcome one or more of these shortcomings of the current healthcare marketplace.